Date: Monday 28-Aug-2017
Time: 11:00-12:00
Location: PSC 1136
Speaker: Phil Cowperthwaite (Harvard)
Title: "Deep Rapid Optical Follow-Up of Gravitational Wave Sources with DECam"
Identifying the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave (GW) event is one of the great observational challenges in modern astronomy. I report on my work to overcome this challenge by investigating the theoretical and practical issues associated with optical follow-up of a GW event. First, I will present work from the ongoing collaboration between community observers and the Dark Energy Survey (DES) to execute rapid optical follow-up of GW events reported by Advanced LIGO. I will then present work on a systematic study of the potential contaminant population and their impact on counterpart detectability using data taken with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam). These data serve as a mock follow-up to a GW event and assist in the characterization of contamination not captured in simulations. Lastly, I will discuss the future prospects in the field as new facilities come online over the next decade.
Guidelines and format for the CTC Lunch seminars.
Past CTC Lunch seminars.
For other questions, contact the CTC Lunch host: Peter Polko
SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS:
Special accommodations for individuals with disabilities can be made by calling (301) 405-3001. It would be appreciated if we are notified at least one week in advance.
